You're Just Lusting After Her Body, You're Despicable!

Su Yueli shook her head. Those were privileges only immortals enjoyed.

Thinking of this, she raised her head to look at the rolling clouds on the horizon and could not help recalling Shen Huai'an, who had already stepped onto the immortal path.

Twenty years had passed. Who knew what the fellow with the Supreme Heavenly Bone looked like now?

In the immortal realm, years passed without notice. To cultivators, twenty years was merely a brief period of secluded cultivation.

One was up in the heavens as an immortal, one was in the mortal world as a wealthy man, while she...

Su Yueli rose to her feet and brushed the dust from the hem of her clothes.

After pondering for a moment, she smiled. "So be it. Once I see the village chief off, I'll go visit that fellow Shen Qing'an."

Having made up her mind, Su Yueli came outside the mourning hall. The sound of suonas rose, and villagers filled the surrounding area.

The autumn wind rustled, and fallen leaves returned to their roots.

The old village chief had already been changed into fresh clothes. His expression was peaceful, and he did not seem much different from twenty years ago?

Su Yueli was not sure. If she had not seen him this time, the old village chief's face would already have begun to blur in her memories.

After a long while, on the country path, the villagers formed a long line behind the coffin bearers, white funeral paper fluttering through the air.

After burying the village chief, Su Yueli silently bowed three times and murmured with a soft laugh, "Thank you for taking such good care of me during those days, Old Village Chief... May you have a peaceful journey."

The villagers also paid their respects before gradually returning to the village.

Along the way, Second Pebble hurried after her, keeping his head lowered and not daring to look at Su Yueli.

Only after a long while did he carefully ask, "Yueli, how have you been living on the mountain all these years?"

Su Yueli looked at Second Pebble. He seemed... shy?

Unable to be certain, she replied blandly, "Not bad."

"That's good, that's good."

The atmosphere was somewhat awkward. After a while, Second Pebble asked, "Yueli, you haven't married yet, have you?"

"Uh..."

Su Yueli fell speechless and shook her head.

She could not possibly marry. She could not get over that hurdle in her heart, much less with a sea of blood-deep enmity resting on her shoulders.

Yet Second Pebble seemed delighted. After chatting for a few more words, he left ahead of her, leaving Su Yueli utterly baffled.

Second Pebble sprinted all the way home. Stone Father was squatting beneath the eaves, smoking a pipe of dry tobacco, and nearly jumped at the commotion.

"Dad!"

Second Pebble had not even caught his breath. Face red, he shouted, "I want to marry a wife! I want to marry Yueli!"

With a clatter, Stone Father's tobacco pipe fell from his mouth to the ground. His expression turned excited—his son had finally come to his senses.

But then he froze for quite a while, his brows knitting together. "Yueli? Which Yueli?"

"Come on, Dad! Su Yueli—the one who became a martial artist's disciple twenty years ago and went up the mountain to train! She came down this morning to collect a letter."

Stone Father's clouded eyes shifted. Only then did he dig this person out from his memories.

His anger immediately surged skyward. Pointing at Second Pebble's nose, he roared, "You little bastard! I was wondering why you refused to meet any of the village girls these past few years. So you've been thinking about that woman all along!"

"Dad, I truly like her! I've liked her since twenty years ago!" Second Pebble craned his neck stubbornly.

"Dad, I truly like her!"

"Bullshit!"

Stone Father slapped the back of his head, then snapped irritably, "You call that liking her? You're just lusting after her body, you're despicable!"

Second Pebble's face turned scarlet from the scolding. For a long time, he could not squeeze out a single word.

Seeing this, Stone Father sighed helplessly and tried to persuade him. "Can't you use your brain? Twenty years have passed. You're past thirty and nearly forty. Shen Huai'an, the second son of the Shen family who's your age, has already become an immortal. If that Su girl is really alive, she'd be an old spinster nearing forty! What did you say she looked like just now?"

"Um..." Second Pebble stammered in rebuttal, "She... she looks exactly the same as twenty years ago."

"Then she's a monster!"

Stone Father slapped his thigh, his expression growing tense. "What mortal doesn't age? She must be some fox spirit in disguise, specially here to suck away our vital essence!"

"Dad, stop talking nonsense. She practices martial arts. Martial artists have vigorous blood and energy—doesn't it make sense for them to age slowly?"

"What fucking use is that?!" Stone Father was beside himself with rage.

"She spends every day in the mountains punching and training. Can she farm? Can she weave cloth and cook? If we marry an ancestor into the family and have to worship her every day, how long will our few meager fields feed us?"

"No, this is out of the question! Tomorrow, I'll have your aunt arrange a match. Hurry up and find someone hardworking to marry. If you find someone who trains martial arts every day, you'll only starve yourself to death!"

Listening to his old father's stream of scolding, Second Pebble's eyes reddened. He gritted his teeth and rushed out.

"..."

Meanwhile, Su Yueli had just returned to the village.

The number of people on the road gradually increased, and every face she met was unfamiliar.

The elders she had known back then had already turned to yellow earth. The ones now calling the shots in the village were all from the new generation.

Yet with her movements so undisguised, that pretty face of hers had become something alien in the villagers' eyes.

The elders she had known back then had long since turned to yellow earth. Those now calling the shots in the village were all from the new generation, who had still been in swaddling clothes back then—or had not even been born.

"Did you see her? That's her... She came down to collect a letter!"

"She hasn't aged at all. My dad said she looked like that twenty years ago, and she still looks the same now..."

"Shh, keep your voice down! She's not an immortal. What kind of person has no illness or misfortune and doesn't grow wrinkles? What if some filthy thing from the mountains took over her body and came down to suck people's blood?"

"Exactly, exactly. Stay away from her, or we'll catch some bad luck!"

The whispers were like dense needles, riding the wind and piercing Su Yueli's ears.

Her gaze swept over the scene. Behind doors, behind wicker fences, nearly every villager was watching her with the fear and wariness one would reserve for a monster.

In that instant, an inexplicable fire rose in her heart.

But it soon died away. There was no need to explain...

In this mortal village, where living to sixty or seventy was already considered a long life, not aging was itself the original sin.

Even she herself did not understand why she did not age. What could she use to explain it to these people?

If it could not be explained, then she was a monster—someone to be excluded and treated as an aberration.

Withdrawing her gaze, Su Yueli looked at the earth beneath her feet.

This village that had taken her in back then and given her several peaceful years would ultimately no longer have room for her.

Time had stripped away this harbor that had sheltered her years ago.

It was time to leave...

Through her coarse cloth clothing, Su Yueli touched the letter in her breast.

She murmured softly, "So be it. I'll go to Fengling City and see Shen Qing'an."

After all, when she had come down the mountain this time, her master had told her she could travel around. Besides, Shen Qing'an had helped her quite a bit before, and he had written four letters without receiving a reply. That was truly discourteous of her.

Very soon, Su Yueli left the village along the dirt road overgrown with weeds, her graceful figure gradually melting into the mountain mist.

Half an incense stick later.

Second Pebble, panting heavily, ran to the old locust tree at the village entrance. He looked around in every direction, but still did not see that figure.

He immediately grew anxious and hurriedly grabbed a passing villager. "Uncle, have you seen Yueli?"

"Her? She left long ago. She headed toward the big city, and she probably isn't coming back." The villager shook his head.

Second Pebble stood there blankly, staring at the empty end of the dirt road, pain stabbing through his heart.

He suddenly realized that even if his father had not stopped him, he seemingly could not have kept that woman.

She was like a cloud in the sky, while he was only a handful of dirt in the mud. From that morning twenty years ago, they had been destined to belong to different worlds.